As a companion to my Seven of Nine cosplay, last October, I assimilated an innocent tiny Walmart pumpkin into a Seven-O-Lantern! (Though, the question I keep asking myself is “Is it really a Jack-o-lantern if I didn’t carve it?“) Names aside, welcome to my new series “Trekkie Crafts”, featuring how I made my little Seven pumpkin.
In the spirit of being efficient like the Borg, this was a quicker craft compared to most of my usual creative activities. In total, I believe I spent around 2 hours on it, but that’s just an estimate as I forgot to look at the clock before I began. To my bank account’s delight, it was also a cheaper project, especially I already had all the supplies (other than the pumpkin) from other creative endeavours.
This project is also quite special to me as it got noticed by Jeri Ryan! You won’t believe how excited I was when I got the notification that she’d quote tweeted it!
Materials:
Judging by the economy at the time of writing, I’d expect to spend between $15-20 CAD on materials. This depends on what you already own.
Pumpkin (Whatever size you’d like but I opted for one of the cute mini ones.)
Acrylic Paint (However many colours you plan to use for your face design but because I decided to opt for a lower decks inspired face I only needed black. If your clay is not your desired colour make sure to get whatever colours you need for the Borg implant.)
Pencil and/or Permanent Marker (I used both to plan the face design before painting it on.)
Oven Bake Clay Of Your Choosing - I used Silver Sculpy clay that way I didn’t have to worry about painting it and it’s super easy for me to bake in the toaster oven.
Superglue or Hot Glue
Designing The Face
I’ll be honest, I was mildly intimidated by the daunting task of designing the face. Drawing/painting are not my strengths, so I figured a Star Trek: Lower Decks inspired design would be the best option and make for an epic Trek crossover.
To assist myself in creating the design I referenced it off of Mariner’s face from Lower Decks which I practiced tracing in procreate. Once I figured out the idea for the design digitally, I sketched it on my pumpkin with a pencil. Initially, I tried to use a Sharpie to colour the design on the pumpkin but it didn’t really work properly. My advice is to first sketch the design on the pumpkin with a pencil, then trace over your sketch with the permanent marker and then finally fill it in with your acrylic paint.
At first, I actually drew the eyebrow on the wrong side! Luckily a bit of scrubbing with some nail polish remover was able to get it off enough. It can’t completely fix all mistakes but if you have any small accidents it my save you. This is why you might catch the eyebrow switch to the other side in my YouTube video.
Creating The Ocular Implant
When working on this project I had already sculpted a few ocular implants for my Seven of Nine cosplay, but for my cosplay I always used modelling clay (More on that process soon to come!) which is slightly different that Sculpy clay. This time I simply used my Sculpy Clay as it’s easy to bake into a hard piece that I could stick onto the pumpkin. It’s also the same material I used for my 24th Century Comm Badge.
At this point, I knew the Ocular Implant design quite well and I had my database of reference photos (might have to do another post just to explain my project planning process) to assist me. Although I try to create all my projects to the best of my ability, I knew it was only staying for Halloween and wanted to complete it for the satisfaction. I could have put a few more details on the implant like when sculpting it for my cosplay but this time I opted not to. In this case, I believe it only took me an hour as I stopped perfecting it once I felt the piece conveyed what the ocular implant is. This project was an opportunity for me to try practicing the to know and accept when and where to put your energy into perfecting things.
I tried to shape the ocular implant to fit the pumpkin perfectly by placing it on wax paper and creating a ball for it to sit upon when in the oven. Unfortunately, this strategy didn’t really work. When putting the Ocular Implant on the pumpkin it did not fit exact (a similar issue that I had with my early prosthetics for my cosplay) and it actually ended up snapping. Sculpy Clay is a somewhat bendy material, though if attempting to manipulate it once baked you must be extremely careful to not snap it. At the time, I did not have any hot glue so, I had to use my worst nemesis, super glue (yes, I did get some on my fingers, as per usual.). Superglue sufficed, however I believe hot glue should work just as fine and personally it’s a material I prefer to work with. Due to the piece snapping, I ended up attaching it in two pieces, but luckily it looked as if it was one. I used the super glue to fill in any space between the prosthetic and the pumpkin.
Disposal
To my sadness, one day in early November I was instructed by my mother to dispose of Seven pumpkin. She had already rounded the corner from the hallway that Seven pumpkin resided in, with the Borg pumpkin in her hands. Before I can even say anything, she rips the two Ocular Implant pieces from Seven pumpkin, hands them to me and requests that I put the pumpkin in the compost. Conveniently, the disposal process was as simple as that. My mother citing that the holidays were coming and Seven pumpkin would start to rot soon, so it was time for her to go. Perhaps, I need to do a holiday edition of Trekkie Crafts?
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